Posts

GURPS—the Generic Universal Roleplaying System—is one of my favorite games, but this is not an installment of Favorite Games Ever. Instead, I want to look at some of the reasons I hear for why gamers avoid, dislike, even hate GURPS. I don't really agree with many of these points, but let's examine them for what they are, rather than try to dismiss them out of hand.
Too Much Math
GURPS certainly has a reputation for being numbers heavy, and it's not entirely undeserved. While at its core, you'll only need basic arithmetic to play GURPS, there are slightly more advanced permutations and optional rules that call for multiplying by percentages and rounding (almost always up) or dividing by something other than half. In a very few, very niche areas in supplements, you may need to pull out a calculator and use the square root function.
While I don't have a problem digging into a little math here and there, I can understand how it would put off a gamer who just wants to g…

The first RPG I ever ran was Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition. I wasn't nearly as tied into gaming news then as I am now. No one was, though I certainly could have been more informed — if I knew ENWorld (or its predecessor) existed, for example. But I was aware that a new edition of D&D was coming out, probably because I collected GURPS and other game books and was no stranger to a hobby shop.

In the fall of 2000, I picked up the three core rulebooks for Third Edition. The Player's Handbook came with a CD-ROM — remember those? — with a character creation program. The first adventure I ran was a bizarre affair involving an abandoned wizard's tower surrounded by a village of lawn gnomes, with a dungeon beneath inhabited by a cotton candy-pink dragon. Keep in mind, I was a senior in high school at the time. And I've never done drugs.

Anyway, I was hooked. I managed to play in a campaign through graduation, and then when I got to college, I joined the gaming club…

For May 2017, I offered PDFs, POD books, and POD cards for sale through OneBookShelf: DriveThruRPG, RPGNow, DriveThruCards, etc. May was fairly average, without any sales or specials to goose revenue. In total, I sold 21 units last month, including a few card decks. My total earnings came to $19.83 (auspicious, but not particularly heartening).